Red Bull’s Christian Horner: “An excellent podium for Daniel today”

Daniel Ricciardo finished third in Canada to the delight of Team Principal Christian Horner - Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

It was a mixed day at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for Red Bull Racing on Sunday, with Daniel Ricciardo securing a third consecutive podium finish in third, while Max Verstappen was an early retirement after a mechanical failure whilst running second.

Team Principal Christian Horner gave praise to Ricciardo for his performance, especially with the Australian holding off the challenge from the two Sahara Force India Formula 1 Team drivers and then from Sebastian Vettel’s Scuderia Ferrari for much of the afternoon.

“An excellent podium for Daniel today, who really didn’t make any mistakes, despite huge pressures from Force Indias and Ferrari behind,” said Horner. “We banked track position early on with the soft tyre with the intention of going to the end of the race and that worked out well today.

“Leaving Montreal and one of our more challenging tracks on the calendar with a podium is a positive result and good to see Sir Patrick Stewart having fun on the podium.”

Horner was disappointed that Verstappen’s promising start to the race ended with a retirement thanks to an energy store issue, with the Dutchman having jumped from fifth on the grid to move into second at the start. It was more bad luck for the teenager, but Horner believes it will all eventually come good for him.

“It was a great shame for us to lose Max after 11 laps,” said Horner. “He had an unbelievable start which propelled him into second place by turn two, and then after an audacious move to take the lead at the restart he was looking competitive for second place when a suspected energy store failure caused an instantaneous retirement.